In a playback or recording unit for optical recording media, the data track of the recording medium is scanned with the aid of a light beam or laser beam, which is denoted as scanning beam and is held on the spiral-shaped data track of the optical recording medium with the aid of a focusing control loop and a track control loop. The scanning beam can consist in this case of one or more light or laser beams directed onto the recording medium. Optical recording media, such as for example the CD or DVD, are very largely unprotected, and so general handling is enough for their surface to have scratches or dirt, denoted below as defect or disk disturbance, such as dust or fingerprints, for example. Moreover, defects can occur as early as during the production process, for example owing to intrusions. Defects in the optical recording medium cause disturbances in the focus and/or track control loop, since no control signal can be formed in the defective region with the aid of the scanning beam, or the control signal is greatly falsified so that the scanning beam leaves the data track in an uncontrolled fashion and usually traverses a plurality of data tracks. The disturbance is detected and an attempt is made to reduce the effects on the control loops by means of a slight control loop amplification or by masking out the interference signal. As soon as the scanning beam once again reaches a data track without a defect, the focusing and the scanning location reached after the disturbance are checked. Subsequently, a control signal is generated in order to guide the scanning beam back to the location of the track loss, and to skip the defective region with the aid of a slight control loop amplification, a targeted jump or use of a stored or retained control signal. It has already been proposed to reduce the error rate with the aid of an offset voltage dependent on the location of the defect in relation to the resulting disk wobble. However, it has emerged that because no account is taken of the distance from the location of the track loss or of the data losses associated therewith, scanning disturbances can be compensated only insufficiently with the aid of the error rate as the number of false bits compared to the number of bits received overall. The scannability of a playback or recording unit in the case of defects on the optical recording medium is additionally influenced by the type and size and/or duration of the defect as well as by numerous further parameters such as the radial eccentricity, the vertical disk wobble, the tangential scanning angle and the accuracy of trimming of symmetry and offset of the control signals, the resultant practice being the occurrence of large tolerances with regard to the scannability of optical recording media in a playback or recording unit.